1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and an apparatus for providing a broadcasting service; and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for providing a broadcasting service for different types of wireless communication systems by grouping wireless communication access networks, in which different wireless access technologies are used, into a broadcasting service area, in which the same broadcasting contents are provided, and managing the broadcasting service area in order to provide an efficient broadcasting service.
2. Description of Related Art
Broadcasting contents have been delivered in a unicast type so far in various wireless access systems, such as Mobile WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution). However, considering the increasing number of channels and quality of contents, the amount of available radio resources is limited, and the cost for using them is very high. Therefore, continued delivery of broadcasting contents based on unicast is limited.
For these reasons, various types of broadcasting specifications have recently been proposed to efficiently provide broadcasting contents through a broadcasting or multicast service even in wireless access systems, such as E-MBS (Enhanced-Multicast Broadcast Service) of Mobile WiMAX and e-MBMS (enhanced-Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service) of LTE.
In the case of E-MBS proposed by IEEE802.16e or IEEE802.16m, wireless network access nodes (base station devices) are arranged into a number of logic groups to establish a single broadcasting area. In such broadcasting areas, the same data is transmitted through resource intervals accessible by all terminals (macro-diversity is used), for example, to improve the transmission rate and service reception quality. The e-MBMS proposed by LTE has a similar configuration.
However, these types of broadcasting techniques are not applied to wireless networks using different wireless access technologies, but are limitedly applied to access nodes using the same wireless access technology.
Specifically, considering that a large number of network businesses are simultaneously operating various types of wireless access networks nowadays, it is necessary to develop an operating system for establishing broadcasting service areas regardless of wireless access technologies used in wireless access networks and providing broadcasting contents in each of the established broadcasting service areas.